Rue | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 10

Ibeth was suddenly a mother of seven.

She would never voice to anyone within that household that raising that many children at once was simply too much. The only ones who knew how stressed she was were Vincent and Cami, who managed to extract the information by plying her with too many drinks. They were sworn to secrecy, but were on-duty in case Ibeth got overwhelmed and needed back-up.

She expected it would have been easier with Nick and Luna. They could do practically everything on their own, and yet, Ibeth found herself still needing to rush around to address their queries and help them with everything. Usually, she had one of the twins on her hip while Henry was swaddled to her chest, fussing about everything.

It might have been easier if she didn't feel so alone the whole time. Elijah was unhappy with Klaus (naturally) and spent most of his time in Algiers training Marcel's vampires, which meant he was hardly at the Compound. As she integrated herself into the world, Freya got into the habit of partying hard and going home with a different person each time, which meant she wasn't around much, either. Rebekah had returned to her witch body to travel around the world until she found a way to resurrect Kol.

Which meant that first month post-Dahlia's death consisted of just Ibeth and Klaus in a house of seven needy children.

Klaus was keeping his distance and striking up only boring conversations to maintain civility, which meant he wasn't actually available to help. Not that she'd explicitly asked him to, but he never really made the offer to, either. She supposed she should be thankful that he was no longer being rude to her. But it didn't make her job any easier.

"We're like the Brady Bunch," said Nick as he sat by the window in Ibeth's room, watching as she braided Luna's hair. "Hey, you fucked that braid up, go back and redo it."

"Language," warned Ibeth, briefly covering Luna's ears. "I'll redo it."

"I don't care if it looks weird," piped up Luna. "It's just to sleep."

"See?" said Ibeth, smiling down at them. "I'm still going to fix it, though." She took a moment to listen to the noises in the other rooms. "The twins are still asleep. I can hear Henry whining at Hope again. And sweet Angel trying to help out."

"If I were you," muttered Nick, "I wouldn't trust leaving Klaus with Angel and Henry."

"If I could get Angel to stop following him around all the time, I would. It's not like Klaus does anything, he just watches while they play. Angel's never had a father figure the way the rest of you have. I don't blame him for being attached."

"Klaus hardly counts as a father figure."

Ibeth sighed. "We're trying, Nick. This isn't going to be easy. But until that curse is undone... we just take it one day at a time. You guys have been here less than a week. I'd say things are going well enough."

"I hate it here," said Nick, causing Luna to hold their hand up and silence him.

"Hate is a strong word," Luna told him. "You shouldn't use that."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Klaus lied about killing my brother. And he treats Ibeth like shit. I can hate him all I want."

"Luna's right, Nick," warned Ibeth. "Hate is a strong word. We aren't any better than him if we become haters and carry all that anger. We're healing, I know that. And it doesn't make what happened any easier living here. I acknowledge that and I am sorry. But I can't care for you guys out in the Bayou the way I can here. I have resources here, and we have people who cook and clean for us. We have enough space for you guys to do your homework with enough privacy and I, for one, don't miss having to bathe in the lake."